


Hold

by LibraLibrary



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: I promise it ends with cute girlfriends I swear, like it's an actual massacre be warned, no gore bc monsters but it's dark, opens on Flowey killing literally everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 14:07:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5251007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraLibrary/pseuds/LibraLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Undyne’s entire goal in life has been to protect her people. Too bad the entire underground is dying around her, and she can’t do a damn thing to stop it.</p><p>Companion piece to Found Soul, following Undyne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place before and during Found Soul, following Undyne. 
> 
> This starts out as Flowey is killing all of the monsters in the underground and it gets BAD. Be warned for character death (temporary but still horrible).

Undyne’s entire goal in life has been to protect her people. Too bad the entire underground is dying around her, and she can’t do a damn thing to stop it.

Not that she isn’t trying; she’s probably thrown more spears in the last five minutes than her entire life combined so far. Everyone in their little group is throwing everything they have at Flowey, weapons, magic, insults. Papyrus in particular is furious, flinging bones of many colors and demanding that the traitorous little plant return the human, and for a moment Undyne wonders if maybe she made a mistake in not letting him join the royal guard. Nothing is landing, though, and the flower swats every blow off like bothersome gnats.

The only one not fighting is Alphys, and Undyne doesn’t blame her. The lizard’s eyes are fixed at the ceiling in terror, overwhelmed by the screams and death-rattles of dozens of innocents at a time. Every second vines return from the other towns with panicking citizens, and every second another life is cut short with brutal efficiency.

Dust rains down on the group of six like snowflakes.

Up above, a dissonant chorus of what sounds like several dogs at once start yelping in fear and pain, and for the first time Alphys starts to struggle. “No! NonononoNO PLEASE-”

One last combined yelp echoes, and a mass of dust showers the group, everyone else scrambling to cover their mouths and shudder in horror. Alphys stares up in shock and horror, tears cutting sharp trails through the coating of powder on her face, and Undyne feels her heart break. She cranes her neck to look back at Flowey, rage seething when she sees the cheery grin on his face. “Awwww, I always did play too rough with pets~”

Undyne’s ready to spew some vile sentiments (at least there’s one upside to the human being taken), but before she can get a single word out, a cellphone comes flying out of nowhere, whacking the murderous little creep in the face. He shouts and sputters in surprise, and glares past Undyne. She pales, turning back, and is stunned to see Alphys, arms free and huffing. The look of raw hatred and fury in her eyes is jarring, compared to her usual nervous and gentle demeanor. For once, she’s pissed enough to fight back against a problem.

 _Oh god Alphie_ , Undyne thinks, _this was not the time-_

Flowey giggles, a bone-chilling sound from a mass murderer, and he pulls the lizard down closer. “Well golly, look who finally decided to grow a spine! Not like you to stick your neck out, Dr!”

Papyrus sees the extra vines creeping up before anyone else, and tries to call out a warning, but the scientist is still caught off guard when the thin tendrils lash out and grasp her around the neck. The flower grins wider as the others react, relishing their shouts and cries. “Not your best decision, huh? Not like you’ve ever been smart about your choices. Then again,” the plant smirks, voice dropping a few octaves, “I’m proof of that, aren’t I?”

The vines tighten around Alphys’s neck, and she starts to struggle, scratching at them and gasping. Undyne panics, doubling up on her assault on the source of their distress, and the others follow suit. When that doesn’t work, she immediately summons another spear and begins furiously sawing at the vine holding her captive. She has to get out, she has to go help, she can’t let this happen, she has to…

“Awwww, look at the big strong captain trying to save the pathetic little scientist. Isn’t that romantic?”

God, she wants to kill that flower, but that can wait. She’s actually making progress, god knows if this is hurting him, but if she can just reach-

“Oh, does the flowery swordswoman need a hand saving the princess? Here,” the vines whip around, and suddenly Alphys is maybe a yard away, still squirming and gasping for air she can’t have, “give it a shot.”

Undyne is so surprised she drops her spear, reaching out for her friend immediately. “Alphys! Alphys hold on I’ve got you okay?!”

Alphys rolls her eyes to look at the warrior, and one hand pulls away from her neck while the other halfheartedly tugs at the tightening ligatures. She reaches out for the taller woman’s hand, just barely missing. A garbled choke manages to push past the vines, tears of pain and fear brimming. “Ungng...dyyyyne…”

Undyne makes contacts with the vine holding Alphys, scratching and tugging furiously. “I know Alphie, I know, I’m gonna get you down okay, I’m gonna-”

“Sssrrr...srrrrreeeeee…”

Undyne’s attacks slow down, and she looks up to meet her friend’s eyes. “Alphys?”

“Mmm...sorr….rryyy.”

“Alphys…” she reaches out to take the dear little lizard’s hand, fingers brushing the tips of the scaled digits.

Alphys gurgles, and her hand falls, taking Undyne’s heart with it as little flecks of dust start to detach from her form.

Flowey delivers one last taunt, but it’s drowned out under the gutwrenching scream from the captain. 

“ALPHYS!”  
Her voice trails off, and in the relative quiet she can hear her friends sobbing and panicking. Somewhere inside of her, the instinct instilled by years of dedication and training demands she immediately resume efforts to break free and save them. She remains still, however, watching as the vines loosen, and the mostly-intact mass that used to be her friend (best friend, girlfriend maybe, if she could’ve gotten it together and not been such an idiot before) drop to the floor, sending up a small plume of dust.

“Awww, poor Dr. Alphys. Couldn’t keep it together!”

Something inside Undyne’s mind screams for her to break free and rip every last petal out of the damn flower’s head, but it shouts into a void. It’s as if her mind has purposefully slowed down all function, trying desperately to postpone the horrific realization that Alphys is dead. It doesn’t work; her chest starts tightening, and she can feel another anguished scream building up, but it can’t crawl much further than her throat.

_Alphys is dead. She’s dead and you couldn’t save her and you couldn’t apologize for ever making her think you didn’t care and you never got to kiss her and you COULDN’T SAVE HER-_

“Poor little fishie, you look _crushed_ ~”

The pressure in her chest grows, and it takes her far too long to realize it’s not just the burning weight of loss and despair. The vines are tightening. Flowey’s crushing her to death. Somehow, despite the terrifying revelation and the sudden realization that everyone’s screaming for the flower to let her go, she’s not afraid. She really can’t feel anything, other than the growing tightness and the cold chill that’s been slowly spreading inwards from the fingertips that got so close, just brushed her’s…

The sounds of innocent monsters dying and her friends calling for her fade, as does her vision, darkness closing in on the sight of the barely-recognizable pile of dust mixing into so many others on the floor.

~*~

Alphys. She needs to protect Alphys from something, it’s extremely important, and that’s all she really knows.

Everything is all at once chaotic and crowded, and desolate and silent. If time is passing or has passed, she can’t tell. She can’t really remember anything; where she is, what’s happened, why she feels so numb.

All she knows is that there’s danger approaching, and she has to protect everyone (protect Alphys save Alphys don’t let them hurt her), and that there’s a human in front of her. Humans are bad, humans have such a beautiful history and culture but they’re killers and this one is bad. They’re all bad. They have to be harvested to free the underground. She knows that. The small child runs up to her, and she readies her weapon; of course the human would attempt the first blow.

The child stops just before her, and lightly taps her. Hidden beneath a deep layer of confusion, the smell of fresh-made sauce and fire is triggered in her memory.

_“All humans will die!”_

She throws her spears in quick succession, and while her teeth grit in frustration, a warmth spreads through her cold, numb chest. The child dodges every hit like a champion, and it’s reminding her of someone…

“Undyne, can you teach me how to cook?”

Of course she can, and god help her, she _wants_ to. There’s a voice inside her head screaming for her to kill the human (not her voice it’s not her own voice why is she only now noticing this), but she wants to teach them to cook, and to fight, and maybe even to play the piano-

_“You’re our real enemy.”_

But they aren’t, are they? The words feel forced and wrong as she unleashes another barrage of violence, hands clenching in frustration as two sides in her fight for dominance. One spear grazes the child’s arm, sending a little drop of crimson to the floor (what floor where is the floor where is _anything_?) and she feels more guilt than she ever has in her life.

The child cradles the injury, looking up, and Undyne expects tears, or screaming, anything but what she gets.

The kid smiles at her, all wide and happy, and the screaming voice fades as something within her bursts. She knows this kid, this is the human that gave her water when she fainted, and came to visit her, and might have accidentally burned her house down now that she thinks of it-

“Well, some humans are OK, I guess!”

The child grins, forgetting their injury, and runs to hug the monster. It’s an unexpected moment of affection, but Undyne can’t help but return it, hugging the little one close. She owes it to the kid for everything; for sparing her, for being a friend, for helping her finally come clean to Alphys-

_Alphys. Alphys is dead._

The cold fear rises up in Undyne’s throat, and she notices that, behind the child’s back, she can feel another hand wrap around her own.

~*~

Undyne comes to in the field of flowers gasping and heaving, one hand scraping her chest to remove the ghosts of the vine that squeezed what little life she had left out of her. Her legs buckle under her, and she lands hard, surrounded by delicate golden blooms (none of them have a face, but she’s still instinctively on edge). She doesn’t notice at first that someone’s standing in front of her, holding her hand and rubbing idle circles into the back of it idly.

“It’s alright Undyne, just breathe. Breathe.”

The tone is soft and comforting, but that’s not what stops Undyne’s breath short; the voice is high and a touch nasally, slow and with the ghost of a stutter, and for a moment she had convinced herself she’d never hear that voice again. She slowly looks up, blinking in the strange light emitted from the corrupted prince in the center of the field, and locks eyes with the short scientist.

“A...Alphys?”

The lizard smiles, and it looks like she has something to say, but the realization hits Undyne like a train, and she can’t stop herself from lunging forward. The two tumble into the waves of flowers, Alphys letting out a small scream of laughter and Undyne sobbing into her shoulder like a stressed schoolgirl. They’re still dead, she realizes, but it’s not over yet, and even if the child can’t save them, they’re together, and for now that’s the only thing she can possibly think of.

Alphys giggles below her, a soft little noise punctuated with a cute snort, and Undyne’s heart breaks to think that she might’ve had to go without that sound for the rest of her life. She drags herself up on her elbows and plants a quick but meaningful kiss on the girl’s snout, followed by dozens more all over her face, because if the kid does succeed there’s no telling where they’ll end up next, so she hopes to enjoy those little giggles as much as possible.


End file.
